Toyota Prius Hybrid.
After four years, eight months and 108,000 miles, my Prius battery pack, has one bad cell.
I bought it in early 2010, with 93,300 miles, at a sub-KBB wholesale price at a local Toyota dealer. Because of the high miles, they couldn't sell it as a certified used car. That was the good part! I'm going to try to buy, either a rebuilt or a good low-mile battery, from a totaled car. I might even consider rebuilding the pack, myself. I guess, all good things have to come to an end. :sigh: |
That sucks, it's rare for the battery pack to fail that early. We have dozens of Prius' at work going back to 2002 and I can only recall one battery pack failure.
If you were in California the warranty is 10 years 150k. People are repairing their own batteries by replacing only the bad cell, lots of videos about this on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvEtiQXtTFc Be careful if you decide to try it, they have something like 300 volts inside. |
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I'm a retired Industrial Electrician, so I'm no stranger to higher voltages, but I will be extremely careful. I was never too crazy, about getting shocked. |
A dead 12V battery shouldn't affect the traction battery at all but the 12v battery is required to start the car since it runs all the electronics.
Leaving the rear hatch ajar is the most common cause of Prius no starts at my work, we have to jump start them often for this reason but it's never caused any other issues. I don't know why Toyota doesn't have a Battery Saver relay to prevent this problem, or some way to use the traction battery to give the 12v battery a boost. I recently had to fix a couple Ford Escape Hybrids at work, they had sat for eight months so naturally the 12v batteries were dead, in addition the traction batteries had discharged to the point they wouldn't start the engine. How to fix that? Turns out the Ford (at least on the older models) had installed an emergency button that would charge the traction battery from the 12v battery enough to start the engine. Press the button (with a good 12v battery) and eight minutes later the vehicle starts, provided of course the traction battery hasn't been discharged to the point of ruin. Eight months was cutting it pretty close, they were down to less than 30% charge at that point but they recovered. |
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My 1986 Riviera ALSO had a battery saver feature--that would cut off any lights left on--after 10-15 minutes or so. my van I have now--a 2001 Chrysler T&C--also does.
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This car has all kinds of tricks. Keyless start and entry, back up camera and climate control. All kinds of options, that spoil you. |
There are several places that refurbish prius battery packs, look up the Toyota dealer in Madison, WI, they sell more hybrids than any dealer in the country, They could steer you to someone who does it. My uncle bought one of the very first, a 1999 model, he still drives it.
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I can still drive it, but as long as the fault indicator is lit, the cruse control doesn't work and the regenerative breaking, is less effective. I'm still doing the research, regarding the repair or replacement of the battery pack. :scratch2: |
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The procedure looks like something, I should be able to handle. I think the high cost involved is the job is very labor intensive. At this point, I have very little to lose. In the area I live in, its impossible to renew the registration of a vehicle that doesn't pass the emissions test. Even though, the fault has nothing to do with emissions, as long as the check engine light is on, they will not even bother to test it. A real vicious circle. :thumbsdn: |
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This should prove to be one of the more interesting undertakings, removing and disassembling this pack. :scratch2: |
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I look forward to hearing about your battery-repair experience. A Prius will likely be my next car (if I can fit in one OK on longer trips; I am 6 feet 4 and have only taken short trips in a friend's Prius). Used ones are available for less than $10,000 these days.
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While you're in the neighborhood and if you have the tools to test... I'd recommend load testing each and every battery and kicking out those that don't pass muster. It's been quite a while since I played with the boss's beloved Prius... a vile car to work on for sure... seems you need three wrists and two elbows to get at most things... wait till you must replace the HID lamp or power supply... a real day at the beach...!!! Since I retired, he bought another one... guess I wasn't there to fix the thing. Somewhere around here I have a service manual I downloaded from the bit torrents or one of the newsgroups... hunt it down and download it as it is quite the manual!!! Good luck!!
Jim PS: BTW, he went to Spain from December to March and the car sat in the garage and the battery came up to 100% within 30 to 45 minutes of driving!!!... not even close to my expectations. |
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There was some kind of a coolant valve, that was leaking. $434.00 later, the check engine light was still on. I always address any leaks, as my cats have access to the garage. More later, Gentlemen. |
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After tearing this thing apart, it's easy to see why cars are so expensive today. There is a lot of electrical wiring and components, present. It's little wonder why some people would rather have a car that's 30, 40 years old. In this area, if we want a older model car, we have to get it from a non-rust belt state. The tin-worm is always busy around here. :thumbsdn: |
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They recommended just removing the one bad cell, but the way they're sandwitched together, it still required removing the cells, preceeding the bad cell. There's all seriesing links on both sides of the cells. The on line proceedures recommended just cutting the plastic between the cells. I just disassembled the entire bank, as one of the cells that had a slightly lower reading and it was the last cell. There's 28, 7.2v nickel metal hydride cells in the bank, one read 6.4 volts and the other 7.2, where the others read 7.8. Those are all no-load readings. Will I do it again! Absolutely! :thmbsp: |
Great news!
We've only had one or two Prius batteries fail in the fleet I work for, they were covered by warranty so I didn't get to experiment. We had a couple Hybrid Escapes that sat so long (eight months) they wouldn't start because the traction battery had discharged too much. Ford included a hidden switch that you press and it recharges the traction battery enough from the 12 volt battery to start the engine, it only takes about eight minutes. |
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It seems, all cars are created equal. Get a few miles on them and it's nickel and dime time. I still shouldn't complain. I still a great daily-driver. :thmbsp: |
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Sorry to say but IMHO it's junk. Be American buy American. I know this might start some sh&t but that's the way I was brought up.
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The cars I now own are a 2006 Jeep Wrangler, bought new, a 2000 Dodge Dakota, also bought new and the Prius. I bought many cars in 52 years, both new and used, Dodges, Plymouths, Fords, one International and one big lemon of a Chevy, never a Japanese make. My two main jobs were Union, so that was one reason. If you study the theory of operation, the design is much better than any other Hybrid. The American firms can't build anything as efficient. |
There is the Tesla. Its a American automotive and better then any Prius.
I just say buy American or all are cars will be like our TVS none built here. Lets keep Americans working and not the Japanese. It only helps all of us. :yes: |
This is veering dangerously close to politics so lets steer it back on topic.
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You're the one who started this foolishness. Get a life and get a job! :thumbsdn: |
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And as my name implies I collect old toys and tvs |
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The world is what it is. It's now a global market, for better or worse. I personally like the freedom to choose to buy what products I want, no matter where they are sourced from. If American products had the best quality at the lowest cost, you can bet I'd be buying more of them. . |
My folks used to buy American cars till mom's ~1989 Chevy Beretta....That thing was a total lemon and spent more time in the shop before it even hit 60K (gaskets failing and injectors plugging well before then, and costing a lot to fix) than it did out of the shop......At that same time my uncle had a similar age Honda, which he drove 100K without ANY maintenance....He never even changed the oil!...And it was STILL going strong when he sold it at 100K miles.
Next car the folks bought after the Chevy was a Honda and the folks never looked back....They have been good cars. of the 4 we've had the first got returned at the end of the lease, the second totaled by an idiot that did not stop with highway traffic, and the current 2 are still going strong and have been FAR more reliable than the last American car the folks bought. I personally am coming to really dislike modern cars sold in the USA....There is way too much electronics in them, and they are not so much drivers cars anymore as they are nanny-mobiles designed to prevent you from having problems texting and driving on the highway (which should be obsolete with modern voice command capable phones that are saturating the market)...Most of the controls are not even mechanically linked and have to go through a computer to take the fun out...That and all the stupid warnings that never used to be there and pointless tech for tech's sake....It makes me really like that the last owner of my 78 Lincoln unplugged the warning buzzers. |
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